The Donnas ‘Spend The Night: Expanded Edition’ reviewed

❉ Mean girls The Donnas ride again with this this expanded edition of 2002’s ‘Spend The Night’.

After nine years on stage and three indie releases honing their immaculate ’70s-inspired hard rock, the all-female The Donnas made their major label debut with ‘Spend The Night’ in 2002 on Atlantic. Fourteen years later, it’s been reissued on indie label Cherry Red with five bonus tracks.

‘Spend The Night’ had one hell of a push from Atlantic, with appearances on talk shows, their songs licensed to films and commercials. But their fierce, tight sound, inspired by bands such as AC/DC and The Runaways, came a bit too late after the prior big boom of rock in the 1990s, and they never caught the kind of traction they really deserved among the album-buying public. Their sound is classicist and polished enough that they didn’t appeal much to the indie and punk scene of the time, which was far more focused on either consciously twee acoustica or nouveau post-punk such as Sleater-Kinney.

This album, which easily could have been titled ‘More Songs About Guys And Getting Loaded’ is an absolutely pitch-perfect evocation of an earlier era, and dripping with enough snotty attitude to make you believe these women would mop the floor with The Ramones or The Sex Pistols in a dirty club alleyway. This is highly recommended if you wanna rock without reservation, and kudos to Cherry Red for bringing it to the attention of a new generation of indie fans.

❉ ‘Spend The Night: Expanded Edition’ was released by Cherry Red Records on 28 October 2016, RRP £9.95.